Catching Up with StarDust

For Korean players, the inevitability of military service acts as a ticking clock against their already fragile careers. However, one player that came back stronger after his military service is StarDust. The affable Protoss, charmingly nicknamed "Cheesedust" for his arsenal of aggressive builds, shot into the limelight after his DreamHack Summer 2013 win. It came almost out of nowhere, but he managed to maintain a high level of play through 2014, which culminated in a spot in the Global Finals. While he has been taking a break since late 2015, it's only a matter of time until he begins competing again.

We caught up with him to talk about his beginnings, his greatest moments, and his future in Legacy of the Void.

When you were younger, what did you want to do as a career? How were you introduced to StarCraft 1?

When I was young, my dream was to become a scientist. This was because there was a popular Korean drama called “Kaist” that was going around when I was young. The characters in that drama looked so cool.

I was introduced to StarCraft when I was in elementary school. During Seollal (Korean New Year) holiday, when the family would get together, the older brothers would find it bothersome to take care of me so they would just take me to PC rooms and let me play StarCraft there. That was the start of my pro-gaming career. Although, now that I think about it, perhaps things would have worked out for better had I not gone to the PC room that day… In reference, the person who actually took me to the PC room and influenced me was a pastor.

Before StarDust, you went by the name M18M. Why did you decide to choose that name?

When I was little, the trend was to create an ID that had a composition of two letters sandwiching a name. So for example: z"ID"z or x"ID"x. But I felt z and x were too common so I decided to be special and go with the letter M. But obviously that was just the mindset of an immature elementary kid. And the number 18 is something that all Koreans understand. The most common form of swearing… [t/n: In Korean, you pronounce 18 as ship-pal, which sounds similar to shi-bal, which is a swear word (there is no literal KR → EN translation for this word)] I don’t understand myself why I chose that kind of ID but then again… I was just a little kid… Maybe I was feeling a little rebellious?

Lets talk about your history as a pro in StarCraft Brood War. When was the moment when you realized that you wanted to become a pro player?

Mmm, I’m pretty sure this is a common reasoning for all pro-gamers. At first, the game was just fun to play and I was also good at it. At school, I had a friend who was known for being really good at SC but I ended up beating him pretty easily. That’s when I realized that I was good at this game. I was really young back then but I was already so good at the game that I felt a sense of pride. I thought I was one of the best. But then I got discouraged when I found out that a guy named “Sea” was already a pro-gamer even though we were the same age. But still, because I was so focused on gaming, naturally my grades started tanking. So I made the decision to become a pro-gamer around my second year of high school. I tried to study hard during my first year of high school but my grades were not satisfactory. So I came to the realization that it would be faster to succeed through gaming than to succeed through studying. But now I realize this was not the case at all. I should have just studied... (laughs)

You were pretty young when you moved to a team house. How difficult was it for you to adjust to the house?

Even as of right now, I’m not used to a team house lifestyle. I’m just really not the kind of guy who focuses heavily on being courteous and looking up to the people who are older than me. The Samsung environment was sensitive toward age differences so the older ones were always calling the shots. For me personally, I didn’t really follow anyone unless I thought they were good people personality-wise. But the whole concept of me having to bow my head and show respect just because some people were older than me never really made sense to me. Because of this mindset, I rebelled a lot. So a lot of teammates actually disliked me because of that. If I look back on it now and had the chance to do it all over again… I’d still act the same way.

Did you have to go through the process of being a b-teamer? What were some difficult things that you have to go through as a brand new pro player?

Well when I first started off within Samsung, Proleague was only Bo5 during that time, and there was a requirement that all races had to be represented. It was almost impossible for me to get a Proleague roster seat with players like JangBi and Stork on the team. And when you look at our skill levels, there was clearly a difference there. I have a tendency to scoff at my own abilities so I didn’t think I could ever become as good as them, especially because my hands were really slow. But I constantly expressed my desire to be sent out in the lineup to the coaching staff, and I was able to grab a seat in the lineup more often than most b-teamers on the team.

It seems like you weren’t drafted out to play for Proleague very often since you were one of the newer players. How did the coach make the decision to bring out his younger players that weren’t experienced as the veteran players?

Honestly speaking, nothing like that existed. It was just a matter of getting better on your own.

One of the most memorable moments in the Shinhan Bank Winners League was when you played Flash in Week 4. Samsung Khan was playing KT Rolster, and Flash was about to go for an all-kill, defeating JangBi, firebathero, and Stork. When you were sent out to play, you went in for a 14 Nexus play on the map New Tornado and you were successful. How did you feel about that moment?

During that time, the best players on Samsung were Stork, JangBi, firebathero, and Great. But the head coach decided that Great would probably end up losing anyways to Flash since Flash had already killed the three others ahead of him. Honestly, that last pick was supposed to just be a throwaway pick. It just so happened that at that time, I had this feeling that I couldn’t lose to anyone, so the coach picked me. But honestly, the only reason I was chosen was because Flash had already secured a three-kill.

Honestly that was probably the only game that I was ever praised for after my pro-gaming debut 2-1 victory over Sea. Of course that match was really important to me, but there’s also some bitterness there because I feel like people only remember me as “that guy that beat Flash”, so I often think to myself, “This was the extent of my career.”

[t/n: StarDust isn’t lying here. I once met him at MLG Dallas back in 2012 and I told him about how memorable his victory over Flash was. His response to that was, “Thank you but that’s all anyone ever remembers about me and that brings me down.”]

Proleague was undergoing the Winners’ League Round 3 and I think I had a score of around 3-1 or something like that during that time. We were going up against the weakest team in the league, Air Force ACE, and we sent out a player that I personally didn’t like. That player ended up grabbing an all-kill and thus, ended up with a better score than mine. I felt a sense of deprivation at that time.

Whenever Samsung would send out a roster against ACE, the roster would consist of players that the coaching staff would like to see wins from. But I was never sent out so I was really upset about that.

Then, I heard that ACE was recruiting and gathering more players so I just decided to register. Most likely I would have had to retire if I hadn’t gotten into Air Force ACE. I had established an ultimatum with the Samsung coaching staff at that time.

Moving forward, you announced that you were planning to take a break from StarCraft 2. You were streaming some Brood War games on Afreeca in the beginning of the year while also laddering on SC2. What are your feelings towards the game at this moment?

During last year’s WCS Challenger League, I lost to Neeb and I ended up getting really frustrated at the game. I found the overseas life difficult and I wasn’t having any fun playing the game. Personally, I feel that I’m lacking in areas where I can motivate myself to do something even if I dislike it. It was unprofessional-like behavior but I boldly decided to just take a break. I spent my break time playing Heroes of the Storm and League of Legends. And as everyone should know by now, BW is still going very strong in the Afreeca scene. So I started streaming a little in hopes that the nostalgia factor would revitalize my passion for SC2.

I didn’t realize it back then but looking back on it now, making such a decision caused a lot of issues for my manager, so I want to apologize for that.

There seems to be some tournaments for Brood War here and there. Did you consider playing in any of them on your break?

Not really… I was playing BW for fun and because I wanted to take a break. Although it really didn’t take me that much effort to get to a skill level where I wasn’t considered to be one of the worst players around, but that’s when I decided to stop. I would have to put in a lot more time and effort in order to get above and beyond that level and I didn’t want to participate in tournaments.

What are your opinions on the remaining Brood War pros that play and stream on Afreeca?

It feels like most of them are doing it because they need the money. I mean, it’s difficult and all but it’s easier than holding down a regular job and you can make more money off of gaming and streaming.

We saw that you were also playing on the LotV ladder as well. What do you think about this expansion so far?

Personally, I feel that it’s much more fun to play than HotS. The main reason is because in HotS, you could really only go for a monotonous army composition and also had to do locked-in build orders to start off. You had to focus on nothing but defending for the first ten minutes in every game because you couldn’t get your composition together otherwise. But in LotV, you have several different aggressive options you can open with so the game is very enjoyable.

You found success in StarCraft 2 after you finished your compulsory military service. What might be your best and memorable moment for you in your whole entire progaming career?

That would of course be the time when I won the DreamHack championship. That day was not only my most memorable day in my pro-gaming career but also my entire life. Is that embarrassing to admit? (laughs) I even had a wet dream about it the day after.

[t/n: I kid you not, every translation program I consulted translated this part of the sentence into “wet dream”, so I just went with it. ]

This is my first time saying this. I’ve never told anyone about this before (laughs). I didn’t even have a perverted dream. I’m sure you can clearly see how much of a jolted feeling I was experiencing.

Up until that moment, I used to think to myself, “I won’t ever win a championship,” or, “I’m not destined for a championship victory,” or even, “I don’t deserve to win a championship.” And even if I was capable of pulling off a championship victory, I figured it would happen gradually after I overcame a Ro16 hurdle, a Ro8 hurdle, a Ro4 hurdle, step-by-step in that process. But then that DreamHack championship happened in the blink of an eye and I had even started from the very bottom. It was a victory that changed my life’s thoughts.

Within my pro-gaming career, most of the feedback that I got back from people was very negative. “Your hands are too slow. You’re not good at multi-tasking,” these were the kinds of things that I heard and they were causing me to think that maybe I would be better off becoming a coach since I like to strategize, and lots of regrets like that. I kept thinking to myself, “Maybe I should have never become a pro-gamer. After all, you rarely receive any money or prestige unless you’re right up there at the top.” I was constantly putting myself down with these kinds of thoughts. I knew that I was good, but I was only an “okay” kind of good and there were so many players out there who excelled over me. But suddenly, all that changed after I won DreamHack. I went from thinking, “In life, there is a pre-destined amount of people who are supposed to win championships,” to, “If you work hard, anyone can pull it off,” kind of motto? It changed to something along the lines of that.

Do you have any plans of coming back for some of your fans in StarCraft 2?

Mmm, if I had to make a decision right now then I would say yes. I’m still practicing SC2 even as of right now but I have been taking breaks here and there. Mainly because the maps being used on ladder and the maps being used in Proleague are different so a lot of pro-gamers are not really laddering right now. So I’m just kind of waiting around and hoping for a map pool change. I plan on continuing my activities in America, so I’m planning out my timing for that. I probably won’t do it though until we arrive at a time where there are tons of tournaments available.

What an awesome interview with all the right questions and excellent answers. Stardust has always seemed like a great personality to me and I'm glad I got to learn more about him. I also don't think there's anything embarassing about winning a Dreamhack being the greatest moment of your life, that's something that very few people have managed to achieve.

Great interview, cool guy. It's always nice to hear about the personal feelings of the players, the ups and downs. He really managed to show us some great moments in his career, so it would be cool to see him some more

On April 21 2016 09:02 TeamLiquid ESPORTS wrote:When I was young, my dream was to become a scientist. This was because there was a popular Korean drama called “Kaist” that was going around when I was young. The characters in that drama looked so cool.

I, I didn't know there was a drama after my school. That's so odd and cool at the same time.

StarDust was always super fun to watch, and great at giving interviews. This is no exception: one of the best I've seen in a long time. I hope things work out well for him, whatever path he ends up pursuing.